This invention relates to an apparatus for loading unvulcanized tires in a predetermined position on a tire vulcanizing machine.
Recent developments in the tire industry have led the way to tire production in large-scale plants and automation of operations in various phases of the manufacturing process, including the field of the tire vulcanizing machines to which the present invention pertains.
In a latest system, a sheet-like material which is obtained after the kneading and blending stages is fed to a molding machine, and the molded unvulcanized tires are then transferred to a vulcanizer or vulcanizing machine for the vulcanizing treatment, followed by the post-inflation for the inflating and cooling treatments and transfer to a finishing treatment of the final stage.
The operations in the respective stages are performed automatically except the job of unloading the unvulcanized tires from the carriage and stacking them in stand-by stations prior to loading on the vulcanizing machine, which still requires manual labor of a number of workers. Namely, the unvulcanized tires which have been delivered by the carriage are once stacked in the stand-by stations outside the vulcanizing machine and loaded one after another into the molds by chucking operation of loader arms which are provided on the machine.
Under these circumstances, from the standpoint of achieving automation of the operation, it is desired that the tire stacking job be handled by one person who is in charge of controlling the whole system. However, in actual operations, more than two persons are usually required exclusively for the stacking operation to cope with the problem of operational time lag which would otherwise be unavoidable when the tires have to be stacked anew, especially in a case where the tires are stacked only in one stand-by station per mold, compelling to stop the vulcanizer for a while and thus impairing its operation efficiency.